Filmic Friday 240: Scarface

Scarface; 1983

If you're a film fanatic, you've probably seen Scarface before, so nothing I tell you will surprise you. If, however, you're a novice to modern film and you don't know anything about this movie, the buckle up, because it's way more than just the originator of a thousand pop-culture references.

This is a really, really good example of how the movie plays, too!

So Scarface is the story of Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant who comes to America to make a living. That sounds great, right? Except Tony Montana is a killer before we ever meet him. He's a hit man. He's a con artist. He's a very bad man. But you can't help but want to see him succeed, despite the fact that he is, by the standards of most moralities, quite evil.

Yes, he only somewhat values human life. Yes, he sees nothing wrong with selling or even using drugs. Yes, he has no respect for the law.

But he loves children. He really wants to be the father he never had. He wants to have a wife and babies and to love and be loved.

He's just utter garbage at that part, though.

See, Tony Montana loves kids, but he loves money just as much, and money is much easier to come by in 1980s Miami.

I'll spare you the total overview of the movie and skim past his uneasy relationship with his mother. I'll skip past the strange relationship with and overprotective streak he has for his sister. I'll even skip over his doomed friendships and partnerships over the years. I'll just say this: If Tony wants, Tony takes.

Including his first boss's cokehead wife.

Tony's story is one of violence - every facet of his life is bound up in violence from the moment he steps off the boat to the moment he steps off the mortal coil.

There's one particular scene where that stands out - his first drug buy gone horribly wrong.

And while we never see quite what happened, we do know that it's about as horrific as it can be.

So what makes Scarface a good movie? Everything. It's a beautifully written story that is so tight and twisted you'd believe it was 100% true if you didn't know better. It's a fantastically directed film where the camera is always where it should be when it should be there with lighting and sound design to match. The score is exquisite and compliments everything perfectly.

It's a masterwork.

And then there's the acting, which is intense. Pacino is both comically over-the-top and deadly serious as Tony Montana, and he drags every single other person with him to their best possible performances. It's amazing to see.

So if you were on the fence about seeing Scarface, I can assure you, it's a spectacular film. I can also promise you that, despite being an intensely violent film, it's not anywhere near the level of a modern crime film. There are buckets of blood, but nothing feels like it's... icky. When there is blood, it serves its purpose, no more, no less.

You should absolutely see this film.

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